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Lake Mead water levels are trending down again

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Lake Mead water levels are trending down again

Lake Mead’s water levels appear to be trending down again as summer comes to a close.

As of October 6, the reservoir’s water levels stood at 1,065.71 feet. This is a slight downturn from the middle of September when levels stood at 1066.46 feet.

Lake Mead borders Arizona and Nevada and is the largest man-made lake in the U.S. It is an integral water source and provides water for around 25 million people living in the Colorado River Basin. When the lake is full, it holds around 31 million acre-feet of water. But this has not been the case for a long time.

There are serious concerns around the lake as its water levels continue to decline amid severe drought conditions in the region. As of now, the lake is only around 30 percent full.

“Water levels in Lake Mead vary seasonally,” Jennifer Pitt, National Audubon Society’s Colorado River Program Director told Newsweek. “It’s most important to keep an eye on the change year over year for both Lakes Mead and Powell, which is indicative of whether the Colorado River water supply is increasing, decreasing, or stable. Both reservoirs are projected to have more water in them at the end of 2023 than they did at the end of 2022, thanks to a very wet winter of 2022-2023.”

At the beginning of this year, Lake Mead’s water levels were incredibly low, at around 1044 feet. It fluctuated slightly over the spring months until May when levels shot up.

The reservoir has seen recent seasonal rains from Hurricane Hilary; however, most of this water replenishment comes from snowmelt in the upper Colorado basin, which has been above average this year.

“Lake Mead levels are up since March, which is a good thing,” Tom Corringham, a research economist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego previously told Newsweek. “Most of the water in the Colorado River is from the upper basin. This has led to more water being released from Lake Powell which refills Lake Mead,” Corringham said.

The above-average snowpack comes from a particular wet year. Although the southwest has been in a drought for years, the region was battered with rain and snow storms throughout the winter and early Spring.

While this has been a welcome source of replenishment for the lake this year, it is unlikely to do much good in the long run.

For the water crisis to fully go away, the region would need years of above-average rainfall.

Scientists believe climate change is the main culprit for the prolonged drought. A change in weather patterns, paired with an overconsumption of water, has meant that Lake Mead’s resources are being used more quickly than they are being replenished.

“We can hope for more snow in years to come, or we can reduce our consumption. Reducing water use is a proactive step we can take, and one we should continue to take in the coming years,” Corringham said.

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the effects of climate change? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

NASA detects bizarre, extraordinarily bright explosion in unexpected place

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NASA detects bizarre, extraordinarily bright explosion in unexpected place

An extraordinarily bright explosion in an unexpected place has been detected by the Hubble Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency.

In a study published in an upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal, a team of researchers describes a rare phenomenon known as a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT).

These cosmic explosions were first discovered in 2018, and only a handful have been found since then. Their origins are poorly understood, but a number of potential explanations have been proposed.

Researchers have identified a particular set of LFBOT characteristics that have been detected so far. These phenomena shine intensely in blue light and evolve rapidly, reaching peak brightness before fading away in a few days.

The latest LFBOT to be discovered is unusual in that it appeared in a location where no one expected it to be, far between two galaxies, which puzzled scientists.

The LFBOT, known as AT2023fh and nicknamed “the Finch,” was observed with multiple telescopes after it was first spotted in April by the Zwicky Transient Facility, a wide-angle, ground-based camera that scans the entire northern sky every two days.

But only Hubble was able to accurately pinpoint its location—about 50,000 light-years from a nearby spiral galaxy and roughly 15,000 light-years from a smaller galaxy.

“The Hubble observations were really the crucial thing. They made us realize that this was unusual compared to the other ones like that, because without the Hubble data we would not have known,” Ashley Chrimes, a European Space Agency research fellow and lead author of the study, said in a press release.

One explanation for LFBOTs is that they represent a rare type of supernova known as core-collapse supernovae. Supernovae are cataclysmic cosmic explosions that occur when massive stars reach the end of their lives.

These kinds of stars are found in the spiral arms of galaxies where star birth is occurring. All previous LFBOTs have been found in these spiral arms. But the Finch was spotted in intergalactic space, challenging this theory of the origin of LFBOTs.

“The more we learn about LFBOTs, the more they surprise us,” Chrimes said. “We’ve now shown that LFBOTs can occur a long way from the center of the nearest galaxy, and the location of the Finch is not what we expect for any kind of supernova.”

To explain the unusual location of the Finch—which reached temperatures of 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to measurements from the Gemini South telescope in Chile—researchers have hypothesized that it may have resulted from the collision of two neutron stars traveling far outside their host galaxy.

Neutron stars are the extremely dense remnants of supermassive stars that have exploded as supernovae. The collision of two neutron stars can produce huge explosions known as kilonovas. It is also possible that one of the neutron stars is highly magnetized—an object known as a magnetar—and that could greatly amplify the explosion’s power.

Another potential explanation is that LFBOTs could result from stars being torn apart by an intermediate-mass black hole, which ranges between 100 and 1,000 solar masses.

“The discovery poses many more questions than it answers,” Chrimes said. “More work is needed to figure out which of the many possible explanations is the right one.”

13 tips for leaders to build a productive and flexible work policy

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13 tips for leaders to build a productive and flexible work policy

Today’s professionals are increasingly expecting jobs to offer flexible workplaces. While many business leaders are seeking to provide more remote and hybrid-friendly workplace environments, it can be difficult to let go of how things have traditionally been done for years and even decades.

In particular, the potential impact on productivity is a significant concern for some leaders as they look to establish more flexible policies. To help, 13 Newsweek Expert Forum members each offer one tip for business leaders seeking to implement a flexible working schedule policy for the first time without impacting overall productivity.

1. Establish Concrete Guidelines

Flexible schedules help employees find the right balance between their professional and personal lives, but transitioning to this type of policy can be a challenge. To ensure success and avoid any disruption to productivity, it is important to establish concrete guidelines. Communicate the importance of employees staying focused and productive while working remotely or outside traditional office hours. – Umang Modi, TIAG, Inc.

2. Have Employees Provide Input on Schedules

Rather than driving policy from the top down, ask your teams to design their ideal flexible work schedule and propose it to leadership. Different teams will have different needs, so a one-size-fits-all approach will not optimize productivity across the system. The people closest to the work are best equipped to determine what a purposeful and productive workplace should be. – Jennifer Bryant, Unify Consulting

3. Do an Initial Pilot Program

Being able to adapt is vital. One golden tip for pioneering a flexible schedule without denting productivity is to pilot it. Initiate a short-term test run, allowing a fraction of the workforce to operate on flexible hours. Monitor outcomes, adjust based on real-time data and garner feedback. A cautious trial-and-error approach can be the compass guiding you through uncharted waters. – Joseph Soares, IBPROM Corp.

4. Provide Managers With Specialized Training

Don’t assume that the same methods managers use to drive and motivate teams in-person will work for a remote team. Before implementing such a policy, ensure that managers receive training that specifically addresses strategies for managing in a remote environment. Also, assess each position and prepare a list of challenges relevant to the position so that those issues can be addressed proactively. – Vonda Wright, L2 Defense, Inc.

5. Set Core Business Hours

The one tip I’d share is to create a common work window so employees can collaborate and you can see what’s going on. This means that whatever an employee’s schedule is, a four-hour window is established where everyone is working at the same time. It can be whatever time you decide, such as 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday. – Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure

6. Put Clear Boundaries in Place

Being very clear with what attributes create and fuel the foundation of the organization. Maintaining certain boundaries and communicating clarity around them allows space for changes in other areas. Integrating flexibility does not have to coincide with “fluffiness” and disconnect, which are two themes that many leaders fear will result if they budge. – Leah Marone, Corporate Wellness Consultant

7. Have a Daily Standing Meeting

Repetition often boosts productivity. Pre-Covid, my team met in-person everyday at 8:30 a.m. to discuss key daily objectives, and it was a great way for us to always be on the same page. During Covid, this meeting moved online, and we have kept the practice ever since. Whether people are working remotely or traveling, we all try to make the 8:30 a.m. meeting for continuity and to not lose momentum. – Peter Marber, Aperture Investors

8. Look to Your Competitors and Peers

Listen to your competitors who already implemented a flexible work schedule policy to learn from their mistakes. Your team members likely talk to their peers from other firms, too, so just ask them to share what they learn. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel but do keep an open mind and be ready to accept that your idea of doing it may not be viable. – Krisztina Veres, Veres Career Consulting

9. Start Small

Start small by thinking and acting in terms of pilot tests. For example, do a half day of work from home for all employees vs. a full day. Gather feedback from your pilot and then launch your next pilot. Share what you discovered from the pilot with employees and let them know what you’ll try next. Employees engage when they experience progress and understand the “why” behind policies and procedures. – Karen Mangia, The Engineered Innovation Group

10. Provide Employee Learning Opportunities

A critical aspect of any business’s longevity is its ability to train and grow its employees. Although flexible workplaces are here to stay, it’s extremely important that this be done in such a way that it does not affect the younger generations ability to learn. Ultimately businesses should make sure they balance flexibility with hands-on experience to set the next generation up for success. – Israel Tannenbaum, Withum

11. Preserve Face-to-Face Meetings

Key staff and company meetings should be done face-to-face and in the office if possible. Other meetings like supervisor or manager to subordinate one-on-one meetings or meetings that involve sensitive topics should also ideally be done face-to-face. Employees should feel that work from home is a benefit, and that benefit can be taken away from them if they do not show results. – Zain Jaffer, Zain Ventures

12. Consider Implementing ‘Flextime Banking’

I propose “Flextime Banking,” where staff members can “deposit” extra work hours during less busy days and “withdraw” them when they need flexibility. This is meant to function like a bank account for work hours. The psychological impact of this is twofold: it rewards proactive productivity and turns time into a tangible asset. – Dr. Kira Graves, Kira Graves Consulting

13. Avoid Focusing on Face Time

Prioritize rewarding productivity and ingenuity over mere face time. A flexible work schedule can be a catalyst for nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit and creativity within your team. Encourage employees to redefine the status quo, promoting a culture where new ideas flourish and contribute to overall success. Flexibility isn’t just an accommodation—it’s an opportunity for growth and innovation. – Anna Yusim, MD, Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching

The Newsweek Expert Forum is an invitation-only network of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience.What’s this?Content labeled as the Expert Forum is produced and managed by Newsweek Expert Forum, a fee based, invitation only membership community. The opinions expressed in this content do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Newsweek or the Newsweek Expert Forum.

Mom was too young to die. I dreaded turning her age

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Mom was too young to die. I dreaded turning her age

I did not want to turn fifty-two.

For over twenty-three years since the death of my mom from melanoma, a form of skin cancer, when she was fifty-two years old, I feared turning that age.

I dreaded its arrival. I wondered: “What if the same thing happens to me?” I worried history would repeat itself.

I also felt pressure. If something were to happen to me this year, my daughters, now twenty-three and twenty-one, would think the women in our family have a tangible expiration date, that our family is cursed. I would never want that for them.

Whenever I thought about turning the age my mom was when she passed away, my whole body tightened with anxiety. Every cell in my body knew how afraid I was.

“How do you want to celebrate your birthday this year?” my husband asked me in a cheerful tone a few days before its arrival.

“Crawl into a hole and come out in a year,” was my initial response. He wasn’t amused.

I felt hopeless.

I’m someone who adores celebrating birthdays, and it felt strange to not want to celebrate this year. At the same time, not having my birthday wasn’t an option.

A couple of days before my birthday, still struggling with how to make this year a little more bearable, an idea came to me during the night. I woke up out of my sleep with these words whispering in my ear: “Dara, make this year about delight, not dread.”

I tossed and turned for the rest of the night, trying to process my newfound idea. When I woke up, I couldn’t shake the feeling this might be the solution to my crisis.

I wondered, could I really take something I’ve been dreading for decades, and, by shifting my mindset, view and experience it differently? What would this even look like?

My dread of this birthday isn’t just a random passing thought. It’s been lodged deeply inside of me for a very long. Could I have the power to reframe the situation?

I thought about this over the days leading up to my birthday, and decided to formulate a plan. I told myself: “I might as well try, what’s the worst that could happen.”

My birthday was coming, the time would pass anyway. I decided to try and help myself make the year a little less painful.

I have struggled with the death of my mom. It has been difficult to make peace with her passing at such a young age. She has missed seeing her children establish our own families and never got to know her grandchildren.

Then, there’s the guilt that comes from outliving her, something I desperately want to do.

I realized making the most of this year would be a great way to honor her. I didn’t want to waste my precious life dreading anything. Instead, I want to make the most of each day of my life.

My plan is all about making this year, my Year of 52, a year focused on doing things that make me happy and fill my heart with joy. This is what shifting from dread to delight means to me. It’s all about sprinkling intention into each month, finding the simple pleasures in everyday life, and grabbing onto it with both hands.

Sure, there will be big things I plan to do that will bring me happiness and joy. But, I’ll be spending most of my time in everyday life, and will focus on how to bring in more happiness and joy into each day.

I decided to assign a theme to each month, such as Giving and Service, Playfulness and Fun, and Cultural Exploration.

I hope to challenge myself, get out of my comfort zone, try new things, and embrace life.

So far, it’s been three months since I started this experiment. The theme for the first month was Physical Wellbeing.

Truth be told, since the pandemic, I haven’t been lifting weights or exercising as much as I used to and I can really tell a difference in my body. I’m also someone who manages stress by moving my body, and I was feeling stressed about my birthday.

That first month, I enjoyed trying new exercise classes, and even started working out with a trainer again. Being intentional about this helped me try new modalities that have become part of my daily life. I’ve been pushing myself out of my comfort zone, lifting heavier weights than I thought possible, learning how strong I really am.

One day, my trainer said to me: “Dara, I notice you tend to hold yourself back. You don’t like to increase the weight that I know you can do.”

She was right, and this made me think about other areas of my life. I realized I do tend to hold myself back sometimes, whether it be trying new foods or even going to new places.

Now that I know this about myself, I’m working on getting out of my comfort zone and pushing myself a bit. Not only am I getting stronger lifting heavier weights, I’m getting stronger every time I try something new.

Mindfulness was the theme of the second month. With my oldest daughter moving to Florida, over ten hours away, and my youngest daughter going to Italy for a semester abroad, to say I was feeling sad about being far from both of them is an understatement.

I knew I could use a little extra help with my mindfulness, and inserted this into my year sooner rather than later.

I created a new meditation space in my home, recommitted my daily morning routine, and reestablished my daily non-negotiable activities. As a result, I feel more grounded and centered.

I also decided to give myself permission to feel all the feels when saying goodbye to my daughters. In the past, I’ve been the kind of person to put on a happy face and say “I’m fine,” when I really wasn’t fine. Not anymore.

Instead, I allowed myself to be sad and cry, even when others around thought I should stop crying already. This helped me to release my sad emotions. I learned the only way to get to the other side is to feel our way through whatever it is. I am shocked at how quickly I rebounded after saying goodbye to them.

Focusing on my relationships and thinking about who I spend my time with was the theme of the third month. I thought a lot about how my friendships have changed over the past few years with the pandemic and becoming an empty nester.

Some friendships aren’t meant to last a lifetime, and that’s OK. There are different seasons to some friendships, people come into our lives and then sometimes leave, and knowing when to let go is important. It also makes space in our lives for new friends. Thinking about this and making sure my schedule reflects the people I truly care about has been very meaningful.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the year with excitement. I’m blessed I’m on this journey and instead of living with dread, I feel more happiness and joy. It’s a lesson for all of us. Being intentional about how we live our lives and making choices each day to help ourselves feel the way we want to feel really does work.

I hope to look back on this year and think about all the fun I had and how much I learned about myself. While I wish my mom had been able to live longer, I realize one way I can honor her memory is to make the most of each day of my life.

That’s what I’m committed to doing, one delightful activity at a time.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of forty-two Dara Kurtz left her twenty-year career as a financial advisor to focus on writing and speaking. She now has her own personal blog, Crazy Perfect Life, and is the author of I am My Mother’s Daughter: Wisdom on Life, Loss, and Love, Crush Cancer, and Living with Gratitude.

All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? Email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com.

Meghan and Harry go head-to-head with William and Kate over mental health

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Meghan and Harry go head-to-head with William and Kate over mental health

The royal rift between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the U.S. and the Prince and Princess of Wales in the U.K. was pulled into public focus once again on Thursday, as the couples both announced events marking World Mental Health Day on October 10.

William and Kate announced three days of royal engagements around Britain on Thursday through a press release issued by Kensington Palace. The royals will attend a series of events highlighting mental health initiatives, including a youth forum hosted in connection with a U.K. radio station.

In the U.S., Harry and Meghan’s plans to host a parents summit in New York City marking World Mental Health Day were revealed exclusively by People magazine.

The couple will attend The Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit: Mental Wellness in a Digital Age in the city, which will focus on the issues facing parents with children growing up with unrestricted access to the internet.

The summit will form part of the non-profit organization, Project Healthy Minds’, annual World Mental Health Day Festival, and feature discussions with parents navigating the core issues.

The duke and duchess will take part in an on-stage discussion with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, moderated by TV and radio host Carson Daly.

Harry and Meghan’s summit is notable for a number of reasons, primarily as it marks the couple’s first public return to New York City after experiencing what their spokesperson called a “near catastrophic car chase” following an awards show back in May.

Harry and Meghan were leaving the Ziegfeld Theatre in Midtown Manhattan on May 16 with the duchess’ mother, Doria Ragland, after attending the Women of Vision awards when they were followed by paparazzi.

The statement issued by the couple’s spokesperson described how the group were chased by a “ring of highly aggressive paparazzi,” resulting in “multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.”

The revelation drew damning parallels with the treatment faced by Princess Diana in the 1990s, who ultimately died from injuries sustained in a car crash while being chased by photographers.

The statement attracted some criticism though, as comments from the NYPD and one of the drivers on the evening appeared to downplay the severity of the pursuit.

In addition to the summit marking their first return to NYC following the car chase, it also comes close on the heels of a two-day visit made by Prince William in September where he attended the Earthshot Innovation Summit.

William drew large crowds for his public appearances in the city, and soon after it was revealed that the prince’s Royal Foundation—run jointly with wife, Kate—had filed a trademark application to protect its name for charitable operations in the U.S., principally connected with mental health.

The trademark move was interpreted as a sign that William and Kate could be looking to expand their outreach in America, something which could ultimately be seen as stepping on Harry and Meghan’s toes, following their full-time move to California in 2020.

The warring relationship between William and Kate and Harry and Meghan was detailed in Harry’s January 2023 memoir, Spare.

In the best selling book, the prince gave his side of some of the tabloid media’s most sensational royal stories, including the reported conflict between Meghan and Kate over bridesmaids dresses before the 2018 royal wedding and motivations which ultimately led to the Sussexes permanent separation from the monarchy.

One element of the brothers’ relationship that Harry examined in his book was their intense rivalry, extending to their charity work. Writing of a time in 2015, Harry claimed that William was angered over which brother took up causes linked with Africa.

“One small problem: Willy. Africa was his thing, he said. And he had the right to say this, or felt he did, because he was the Heir,” Harry wrote. “It was ever in his power to veto my thing, and he had every intention of exercising, even flexing, that veto power.”

“We’d had some real rows about it,” he continued, going on to point out a mutual friend had noted its pettiness, asking: “Why can’t you both work on Africa?”

William did not publicly respond to the allegations made by Harry in his memoir.

This draws some parallels with the fact that both royals have now used New York City as a backdrop for their charity work in close succession, begging the question, is the U.S. big enough to accommodate both princes’ efforts without stepping on one another’s toes and reopening old wounds?

A similar question will be raised in November, where William will attend his third annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony, connected with his eco-initiative founded in 2020. This year, the ceremony will be held in Singapore.

Harry was in Singapore in August to participate in a polo match raising money for his Sentebale charity which distributes funds and support for young people in Africa with HIV and AIDS.

The Wales’ and Sussexes have not been photographed together since Queen Elizabeth II‘s funeral in September 2022.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.

House prices are falling fastest in these four cities

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House prices are falling fastest in these four cities

While house prices remain high across the country and the “correction” of the market predicted by experts seems to have already reached an end, there are four cities where the cost of homes have dropped by over 1 percent. This is according to data from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac.

Home prices skyrocketed across the U.S. during the pandemic, with relatively low mortgage rates and limited supply pushing aspiring homebuyers toward costly bidding wars. In June 2022, the price of a single family home in the country reached an average price of $416,000—an all-time high in U.S. history.

Since then, prices have started to drop as many homebuyers were squeezed out of the market entirely, and demand temporarily slowed down. But, as inventory remains historically low, despite new construction projects finally kicking off and people still wanting—and needing—to buy a home, prices have recently jumped back up.

As of August 31, the latest data available on Zillow, the average value of a U.S. home was $349,770. This is 0.4 percent up on the average one year ago.

However, certain cities have benefited from a significant drop in prices since last summer—especially those that were among the most-overvalued cities in the entire national market.

Data from Freddie Mac shows that, in four cities—Austin, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; New Orleans, Louisiana; and San Antonio, Texas—prices have dropped over 1 percent in the past year.

Specifically, home prices in Austin have dropped by 7.92 percent year on year as of August, while, in Phoenix, they slumped by 1.65 percent. New Orleans saw home prices come down by 3.49 percent between August 2022 and August 2023, while San Antonio experienced a drop by 1.02 percent.

Some of these cities experienced the highest home appreciation in recent years during the pandemic, as they attracted a big movement of people wishing to move there, and are still among the most-overvalued metros in the U.S.

Between January 2020 and June 2022, home prices in Austin, for example, surged by 78 percent, while home prices in Phoenix climbed by 70 percent.

In three of these cities, prices continue falling against the national trend that has seen the country’s average home prices go up since August. In Austin, home prices were down 1.21 percent in August, compared to a month before; while, in New Orleans, they were down by 0.84 percent and in San Antonio by 0.65 percent.

Only in Phoenix, prices jumped back up by 0.07 percent between July and August, and they were up 5.13 percent year-to-date, or since the beginning of the year.

As of August 31, according to Zillow, the average price of a home in Austin was $554,561; in Phoenix, it was $415,258; in New Orleans, it was $263,349; and, in San Antonio, it was $263,040.

Donald Trump rages against judge days after gag order issued

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Donald Trump rages against judge days after gag order issued

Donald Trump raged against the judge presiding over his civil fraud trial days after the judge issued a gag order warning the former president about his social media posts.

Trump blasted New York Judge Arthur Engoron as a “Trump Hating Judge” while complaining about the $250 million case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, the Trump Organization and his two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. Throughout the trial, which began Monday, Trump has taken issue with the trial being a bench trial and not a jury trial, although Engoron informed him this was because “nobody” on Trump’s legal team requested a jury.

“I DON’T EVEN GET A JURY – Therefore, a Radical Left Judge, who came up through Democrat Club System, will decide,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Thursday morning. “It is not possible that he can be fair. Every decision he makes has been a horror show.”

Trump’s criticisms come less than two days after Engoron issued a gag order on Tuesday, barring the former president from making comments about court staff. The order resulted after Trump attacked one of Engoron’s law clerks in a social media post that included her photo earlier in the day.

“This morning one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff,” Engoron told the courtroom. “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances.”

The judge said he had already cautioned Trump “off the record” on Monday but added that his warnings were ignored.

Trump complained about Engoron again on Thursday, saying the judge was unqualified to oversee the case because he did not serve as part of New York’s unique commercial division that is focused on business and commercial litigation. James has accused Trump of fraud, falsification of business records, issuing false financial statements and conspiracy. Last week, Engoron ruled that Trump and his company had committed fraud, deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth when making deals and securing loans.

“Our CORRUPT, RACIST, & INCOMPETENT A.G., Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, considered the WORST ATTORNEY GENERAL IN THE UNITED STATES, refused to bring this case under the respected ‘Commercial Division,’ where judges understand Valuations and Real Estate. This Trump Hating Judge doesn’t. The Appellant Division must intercede, NOW!” the former president wrote.

Engoron’s ruling agreed with prosecutors that Trump overvalued his properties by more than $400 million, writing that “a discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud.”

In his decision, Engoron cited an evaluation from a Palm Beach, Florida, assessor that put Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate at between $18 million and $27 million on the low end. That estimate has sparked outrage from the Trump family, who argue that it’s worth “100 times that amount.” Trump previously testified to prosecutors that the Florida property was worth $1.5 billion, but his new claims put the value of Mar-a-Lago up to $1.8 billion.

Trump made the claim again on Thursday, writing, “I’m in a rat’s nest of NEW YORK DEMOCRAT CORRUPTION, a reason so many companies are leaving New York, our Racist Attorney General filed a lawsuit whose facts and VALUATIONS are wrong, like $18,000,000 for Mar-a-Lago, when it is worth, perhaps, 100 times that amount, and numerous other properties, likewise, that this case is a political SHAM that should never have been brought.”

Thursday marks day four in the civil trial. Trump has been in court the first three days, but it is unclear if he plans to appear on the fourth day as well.

The trick to understanding Kremlin propaganda

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The trick to understanding Kremlin propaganda

On October 1, formerly Western-friendly former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned that “halfwits” in positions of power in NATO countries were “actively pushing us to WWIII” by supporting an idea to send British soldiers to Ukraine as trainers and by calling for the provision to “ukrobanderovtsy” of air-launched cruise missiles capable of flying 500 kilometers.

Medvedev, whose social media rants over the past year have become the stuff of satire, is widely dismissed in most circles as an unserious source for those interested in figuring out what the Kremlin’s inner circle “really thinks.”

The problem is, the crazier-sounding half of Kremlin propaganda—the half that Medvedev, along with widely clipped RT head Margarita Simonyan and talk show host Vladimir Solovyov inhabit—is no less indicative of the conventional wisdom inside Putin’s inner circle than the more plausible sounding half of Kremlin propaganda is.

The secret to understanding Kremlin propaganda is to appreciate the fact that the less plausible sounding half isn’t actually any less true than the more plausible sounding half is—it is cut from the same cloth.

For example, a fairly negligible minority outside of Russia ever actually believed the Kremlin propaganda lines that the United States military has constructed a ring of biological and chemical weapons facilities around Russia’s borders, or that MI6 was behind the attempted poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury back in 2018, or that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over the Donbas in 2014.

Like Medvedev’s rants, these absurdist narratives allow outside observers, along with many Russian citizens themselves, to take pride in the false belief that they are adept spotters of Kremlin propaganda, and so, therefore, Vladimir Putin‘s information warriors are too inept to fool them.

However, plenty of respected figures both in the West and in Russia have fallen for Kremlin narratives that appeared on their face to be true largely because, compared to the kind of fantasies noted above, they at least seemed plausible: that “NATO expansion” posed a military threat to a nuclear-armed superpower, that Putin and those around him are genuinely concerned about the geopolitical might of the state they have spent the past 23 years looting, that the next weapons system delivered to Ukraine might finally represent the Kremlin’s nuclear “red line,” or that the Russian leader—whether due to Covid isolation, incomplete information, or delusions of historical grandeur—somehow failed to understand that the Ukrainian nation he himself had been characterizing for years as an “anti-Russia” would not greet Russian tank crews as liberators on the streets of Kyiv.

If “Kremlin insiders” are repeating a narrative, that ought to be taken as a fairly strong indicator that the narrative is something they want you to believe they believe, rather than something that Putin “really” thinks in actual fact. Those false narratives succeed much more often than is widely appreciated.

Russia eyes new naval base for Black Sea fleet after Crimea retreat

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Russia eyes new naval base for Black Sea fleet after Crimea retreat

Russia is eyeing a new permanent naval base on the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia, an official from the region has said, after satellite images showed President Vladimir Putin‘s Black Sea fleet is fleeing occupied Crimea.

Aslan Bzhania, leader of the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia, met Putin on Wednesday. The next day Bzhania told Russian newspaper Izvestia: “We have signed an agreement, and in the near future there will be a permanent point of deployment for the Russian navy in the Ochamchira district.”

“This is all aimed at increasing the level of defense capability of both Russia and Abkhazia, and this kind of interaction will continue,” he said. “There are also things I can’t talk about.”

The Kremlin has not commented. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

Bzhania’s remarks came as satellite images dated October 1 and 2, shared by three Russian military bloggers on Wednesday, show that some of the largest ships of the Black Sea fleet have repositioned from the port of Sevastopol in Crimea.

The fleet has been dealt a number of blows in recent weeks as Kyiv ramps up its offensive to recapture the Black Sea peninsula that was annexed by Putin in 2014.

On September 22, Ukraine launched a missile attack on the Black Sea fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, reportedly killing a number of senior officers.

Nine days earlier, on September 13, a Ukrainian missile attack on the Sevastopol shipyard damaged a Russian submarine and cruise missile carrier—the Rostov-on-Don—and a large vessel, the Minsk, as they underwent repairs.

Kyiv has said the attacks are part of preparatory measures before it attempts to liberate the peninsula.

In the aftermath of the strikes, satellite images have shown that some of the largest ships of the Black Sea fleet are moored at a naval base near Novorossiysk, while smaller ships are located in Feodosia.

News that Russia is eyeing a permanent naval base in Abkhazia is likely to cause alarm.

The region declared independence in 1999 but is internationally recognized as Georgian. After Russia recognized Abkhazia as an independent state in 2008 following Moscow’s victory in the Russo-Georgian War, the West accused Russia of in effect annexing the region.

Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon, U.S. State Department and NATO for comment.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.

Update: 10/05/23, 6:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add additional information.

Video shows Ukraine special forces land in Crimea: Kyiv

Fox News
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Video shows Ukraine special forces land in Crimea: Kyiv

A video has emerged reportedly showing Ukraine’s recent amphibious landing in annexed Crimea, where units of its special operations forces attacked Russian troops.

The one-minute-long clip was published by the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine on YouTube. The footage was shot at night and showed multiple small vessels approach what Kyiv said was the Black Sea peninsula. It ended with two soldiers holding up a Ukrainian flag and saying: “Crimea will be Ukrainian.”

Russia has been dealt a number of blows in recent weeks as Ukraine ramps up measures to recapture the peninsula illegally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014.

Kyiv officials didn’t specify when the amphibious landing took place, but said it occurred at night and involved two units of Ukrainian soldiers. Newsweek could not independently verify the authenticity of Ukraine’s statements.

Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry via email for comment.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence service, told local publication Ukrainska Pravda that the units in the Crimean operation suffered some losses, but Russia’s side had “many” more personnel killed or wounded.

“There was a battle with the Russian occupiers; many were killed and wounded among the invaders’ personnel,” Yusov said. “Unfortunately, there are losses among Ukrainian defenders too, though these are still not as many as among the Russians.”

Ukraine’s defense intelligence service said via its Telegram channel that the “Stugna and Bratstvo special operations units” landed “on the territory of the Crimean peninsula and inflicted fire on the Moscow occupiers!”

“Crimea will be Ukrainian! Glory to Ukraine!” its post added.

The development came as new satellite images showed Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is fleeing from the port of Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia and the Russian naval port in Feodosia on the annexed peninsula.

The images dated October 1 and 2, shared by three Russian milbloggers, show that some of the largest ships of the Black Sea Fleet are moored at a naval base near Novorossiysk, while smaller ships are now located in Feodosia, The Bell, an independent online newspaper in Russia, reported on Wednesday.

Kyiv also launched a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol on September 22, reportedly killing a number of leading officers.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the attack was part of preparatory measures Kyiv is taking before it attempts to liberate the peninsula.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.

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